I have now been in Kirkcudbright for a few months, so maybe fellow DCAers might like to hear something of this little known part of the country.

However, first the admin. If anybody needs to contact me then, as we have not yet sold our house in Reading, the address at the front of the Bulletin is still OK. My wife will forward any mail onto me. If you need to contact me urgently, my daytime telephone number is 0387 58750 at least until the end of June. Mail can be sent to my flat if urgent at The Grange, Kirkcudbright, DG6 4XG, but I will only be there until we sell our house and buy one up here. So it will usually be better to write to my Reading address.

Now for the news. The Solway Firth is a fabulous area for sailing, especially dinghy and shallow draft small boats, like mine (a Signet 20). There are hardly any other boats about and moorings are abundant and cheap. It is full of sandbanks and narrow channels to keep your pilotage skills awake, and on springs the tidal range is 9m, so you have to work the tides. Kirkcudbright is a small fishing port (pop 3000) with a river that all but dries out. The sailing club is an old wooden shed and the facilities consist of a wooden jetty, a good slipway and nothing else. The people are extremely friendly and the harbour master, Bill Morgan, is very helpful. You need a good pair of wellies to get across the mud at low water. The countryside about is rolling hills up to about 2000 feet, so it does not have the grandeur of the Highlands, but a beauty which I believe is unique in the British Isles. One other advantage is that the tourists tend to pass us by on their way to the Highlands.

If any DCA members intend to visit this area then contact me and I can help you find accommodation and show you round the harbour. Once we have purchased our bungalow, we will be able to ‘put up’ visiting DCA members.